Treatment for Epilepsy : Common Toad

When my uncle was very young he was witness to the treatment of epilepsy of a child in the village. Epilepsy was an ailment which was common among the villagers, from the very young to the middle aged. 

One of the last cases of epilepsy in my mother's village in the 1960's was a middle aged man. The man had an epileptic attack on a jetty after he came home from Sibu by motor launch in the afternoon. The poor man collapsed and became unconscious. When he was brought to the Lau King Howe Hospital by a kind speedboat owner, he was pronounced DOA, or Dead on Arrival. 

 My uncle remembered one case of child epilepsy after the Japanese Occupation. It was a child who was abandoned by his mother after continement. His mother had run away to marry a rich man who was suddenly widowed after the war. The poor, ill fated, biological father brought the child to the village head for advice and treatment. He just did not know what to do with the child who constantly had epileptic fits. The neighbour of the headman had some knowledge of folk medicines, so she volunteered to look after the child for a year out of pity for the father and son. 

 According to my uncle's story, the Aunty caught a common *bufo rana* toad and roasted it over fire until it turned to ashes after which sShe made a paste with the ashes. She slowly fed the baby with it throughout the day. My young uncle was curious so he observed the whole situation with keeness. The villagers were all informed that she caught several toads that month to prepare the same concoction for the child. And sure enough the baby did not have fits after the treatments. But my uncle who later became a school teacher was not totally sure of the cure but he said the child grew to adulthood and was able to "work". Whether he was totatly cured, my uncle did not know.

He however remembered that toads' ashes were good as a treatment for epilepsy. And definitely it was in the "books" of folk medicine. Perhaps the village woman was smart to remember the know she brought from China. But definitely the baby boy lived to tell the story. And so did my uncle.

Our Nang Chong village was full of folk stories like this but we as kids only listened to them and were awed by the knowledge of the elders.